The short version. When someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini "best barber in Plano", the assistant runs a web search, reads a handful of pages, and names a few businesses with links to where it read about them. You are in the answer if you are on the pages it reads — and on the accounts we've measured so far, those pages are mostly local "best of" lists and niche directories, not the big review platforms. There is no separate "AI SEO": Google says in its own documentation that "there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary," and OpenAI's only instruction is to let its search crawler in. What moves the answer is the same short list that moves the map — a complete listing, a website that says in plain text what you are, reviews arriving and answered — plus being on the lists the assistants cite, and checking monthly, because the answer changes.
How does an assistant answer "best café in Oak Cliff"?
Not from memory. Both assistants search first.
Google describes it in AI features and your website: AI Overviews and AI Mode "may use a 'query fan-out' technique — issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources — to develop a response," and "surface relevant links" to the pages the answer drew on. AI Overviews "are only shown when our systems determine that it is additive to classic Search, and as such, often don't trigger."
ChatGPT runs its own crawler for this. OpenAI's crawler documentation says "OAI-SearchBot is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features," and that "sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links." When a user asks a question, ChatGPT may also fetch a page on the spot as ChatGPT-User.
So the answer to "best café in Oak Cliff" is assembled, in seconds, from whatever pages rank for a few searches like that one — a local magazine's list, a directory, a couple of listings — and the assistant names the businesses those pages agree on. It is a summary of other people's lists, with sources.
What do the assistants actually cite?
We can only report what we've measured, and so far that is a small sample. On the nine businesses we had run the check on by mid-September 2026 — three phrasings each, on ChatGPT and Gemini — the sources the answers cited were overwhelmingly local "best of" listicles and niche directories: sites of the threebestrated and bestprosintown kind, city food press, a restaurant-directory site, a medical-directory site for the practices. The big review platforms barely appeared; Yelp showed up once.
Nine businesses is not a study, and we'll say so until it's a larger number. But the shape is consistent with how the answer is built: an assistant asked for "the best" goes looking for a page that already ranks the best, and cites it. The listing and the website get you matched; the list gets you named.
Is there an "AI SEO" you should be doing?
No, by the platforms' own account.
Google's document is unusually direct: "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features. There's also no special schema.org structured data that you need to add." The eligibility rule is the ordinary one: "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet … There are no additional technical requirements." And its list of things worth doing is the SEO list you already have, with one line aimed squarely at local businesses: "Checking that your Merchant Center and Business Profile information is up-to-date."
OpenAI's instruction is one sentence: "To help ensure your site appears in search results, we recommend allowing OAI-SearchBot in your site's robots.txt file."
Anyone selling "AI optimization" to a barbershop is selling the checklist below with a new name on the invoice.
What can a local business actually do?
Five things, in the order they matter.
- Don't block the crawlers. Check your site's
robots.txt(yours is atyourdomain.com/robots.txt).GooglebotandOAI-SearchBotneed to be allowed. OpenAI notes thatGPTBot(training) andOAI-SearchBot(search) are separate settings — "a webmaster can allow OAI-SearchBot in order to appear in search results while disallowing GPTBot." Some website builders and firewalls block all bots by default; that's an invisible opt-out of every answer. And be careful withGoogle-Extended: Google says it limits "AI training and grounding in some of Google's other systems" — the Gemini app among them — so blocking it to avoid training can also remove you from Gemini's answers. - Make the Business Profile complete. Category, hours, address, phone, services, photos — the restaurant checklist or the med spa one. Google names the profile explicitly; the assistants read the same listing everyone else does.
- Say what you are, in text, on your own site. Google's list includes "making sure that important content is available in textual form" and "making sure your structured data matches the visible text on the page." A homepage that is a full-screen photo and a logo tells a crawler nothing. One paragraph — "a barbershop in Plano, walk-ins welcome, fades and beard trims, open seven days" — is what gets matched.
- Be on the lists that get cited. This is the part nobody can do for you and the part that most decides the answer. Some of the local "best of" pages publish their method — public ratings and review counts, a writer's visit, an application form — and some don't. Find the ones that come up when you ask the question yourself, and see what it takes to be on them. Most of it comes back to the next item.
- Reviews arriving, and answered. The lists rank on them; the assistants cite the lists. A listing whose reviews stopped in 2024 falls off the lists, then out of the answer. How to get more if your customers walk out the door; how a practice tells if its pace has dropped if you hold the record.
How do you check whether you're in the answer?
Ask, the way a customer would, and write down three things.
- Ask each assistant the same question in three phrasings — "best [what] in [where]", "where should I go for a [what] in [where]?", "can you recommend a good [what] in [where]?" — because the set of businesses named moves with the phrasing in a way a Google Maps result doesn't. One phrasing is an anecdote; three is a small measurement.
- Note who was named, in what order, and which sources the answer linked to. The sources are the actionable part — they are the lists from item 4.
- Repeat monthly. Answers change as the lists change, and a single check tells you about one afternoon. If you'd rather it ran itself, that's what the check in Oh Local does (see how Oh Local can help).
Two cautions. An assistant that doesn't name you is a fact about that answer on that day, not a verdict on your business — and an assistant that fails to load is not the same as one that left you out. Keep the two apart or you'll chase a problem you don't have.
What this can't tell you
There is no rank to hold. An assistant's answer is regenerated on each ask, from whatever it reads that moment, and nobody — not Google, not OpenAI, not us — can promise a place in it. What you can know is whether you were named this month, who was, and where they read about you. That is enough to act on, and not enough for anyone to promise an outcome from — which is why no one should.
How Oh Local helps with this
Once a month, Oh Local asks ChatGPT and Google Gemini the three questions above for your category and city, and shows you which answers named you, at what position, who else was named, and which source pages the assistants cited — the lists from item 4, found for you. A business is matched by phone number and address before its name, so a similarly named shop across town isn't mistaken for you; an answer we couldn't read is shown as unread, never as "not mentioned." It has its own page in the dashboard, beside the map ranking and the listing checklist, because it's the same levers seen from a different door. The free audit starts with the listing and the reviews — the part of this that is yours to fix today.
How it works
- Run the free audit. We read your public Google reviews and replies and send you the numbers: reply rate, the reviews still waiting for an answer, and the oldest of them — with the table on this page to put them beside.
- Claim your page. Pick your listing, and your QR card and short link are ready to print — from your own phone, no onboarding call.
- Get the weekly email. Every new review with its reply drafted, private feedback that came in, and the short list of what to fix on your listing and site.
- Approve, and that’s it. You press approve on the replies you like. The rest — the card, the page, the measuring — runs on its own.
What you get
Your review page
A printed QR card and a short link that open every review option — Google, Tripadvisor, Facebook — capture the customer’s email, and give an unhappy customer a private word first. About four minutes to a printable QR.
Reviews handled
Every new review on your platforms, with the reply drafted in your voice, in one weekly email. Negative ones first. You approve, edit or skip; nothing posts without you.
Local standing
Where you rank around your shop, what competitors are doing, what changed on your listing — with the exact fix for each. Recommendations can lead to better rankings and more visibility; no tool can promise a position, including ours.
| Industry | Audited | Reviews a month (median) | Top quarter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas restaurants | 358 | 9.3 | 17.4+ |
| Dallas dental practices | 85 | 6 | 8.7+ |
| Dallas retail shops | 83 | 0.9 | 3.2+ |
| Dallas tattoo studios | 82 | 2.2 | 8+ |
| Dallas barbershops | 81 | 2.1 | 4.4+ |
| Dallas plastic surgeons | 75 | 1 | 2.7+ |
| Dallas med spas | 74 | 2.9 | 6.7+ |
FAQ
How does ChatGPT decide which local businesses to recommend?
It searches the web for the question, reads a handful of the pages that rank — typically local "best of" lists, directories and business listings — and names the businesses those pages agree on, with links to its sources. OpenAI's crawler for this is OAI-SearchBot, and sites that block it aren't shown in ChatGPT search answers.
Is there a way to optimize for AI Overviews or AI Mode?
Not a separate one. Google's documentation says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, no special structured data and no "AI text files" — the ordinary requirements apply, plus keeping your Business Profile up to date. The same document says AI Overviews often don't trigger at all.
Should I block AI crawlers from my website?
Not the search ones, if you want to appear in answers. OpenAI separates OAI-SearchBot (search results) from GPTBot (model training), so you can allow the first and disallow the second. Google's controls for AI features in Search are the same as for Search itself — robots.txt for Googlebot, and nosnippet or noindex to limit what's shown. Google-Extended is different: Google's page says it limits "AI training and grounding in some of Google's other systems", which includes the Gemini app — so a business that blocks Google-Extended to stay out of training can also take itself out of Gemini's answers.
Why does ChatGPT name my competitor and not me?
Most often because your competitor is on a page the assistant read — a local "best of" list or a directory — and you aren't, or because their listing or website states what they are more plainly than yours. Ask the question yourself, look at the sources the answer links, and check which of them you could be on. It's a fact about that answer on that day, not a verdict.
How often should I check my AI visibility?
Monthly is enough; answers move slowly and a single check is one afternoon's result. Ask each assistant the same question in three phrasings, note who was named and which sources were cited, and compare against last month.
